If this fall had a theme, it would be ‘tarte tatin’. I’ve been trying to crack the secret to the perfect classic apple version and have made it several times to that end. I am in no way unhappy with the tarte tatin recipe I have shared here previously but I am still trying to find the perfect apple variety for this delight. (If you happen to be French, please let me know what apples your grandma uses!).
This means I have gotten quite proficient at making tarte tatin and have taken this skill in other directions, too. This savory version with tomatoes has quickly become a family favourite and I hope you’ll like it, too. We are still harvesting some tomatoes from the community garden, mainly my all time favourite variety ‘Matt’s Wild Cherry’.
The reason it’s my favourite is that these are always the last plants standing, pumping out delicious sweet tomatoes long after all other plants have succumbed to blight. The slight downside is that these truly are wild and you have to keep pruning them if you don’t want them to take over your garden.
You can make this tart using just one variety of tomato, but a variety of shapes and colours is most fun. I have also added all the good things that go well with tomatoes: dark kalamata olives and briny capers, and of course, Parmesan.
But the best thing about this is probably that you make the whole thing in the one skillet and provided you are not crazy enough to make your own puff pastry, it is so very simple to make.
Tomato tarte tatin
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
600 g (about 1,5 pounds) tomatoes, mix of small and bigger, different colours if possible
10 kalamata olives
20 capers
60 g (2oz) grated Parmesan
375 g (14 oz) all-butter puff pastry
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400F).
Heat the oil in a skillet, add onion and sautee for about 10 minutes, until translucent. Take the skillet away from the heat and season the onions with salt and pepper. Halve the bigger tomatoes but leave the cherry-sized ones whole. Put the halved tomatoes in the pan, cut side down. Add the cherry tomatoes. Scatter the olives and capers over the tomatoes and add the grated Parmesan cheese. Roll out the puff pastry into a circle slightly bigger than your skillet, put it on top of the tomatoes and tuck the sides in. Bake in the preheated oven till the pastry is flaky and golden, about 25 to 30 minutes. Serve either directly from the skillet or turn over on a plate.